Damn scammers like this need to die! I hope they find their little Ollie and I hope they get the scammers too!
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When Gretchen Petery learned that her Yorkshire terrier was missing, she plastered her neighborhood north of Fisher's Landing with fliers seeking his return.
"Please call!!! We miss him!!!" the fliers pleaded.
Then a man called and said 2-year-old Ollie had been taken to Arizona by a work crew that had been installing communications gear near Petery's home. The caller said it was his boss who took Ollie, and he couldn't give his name or even the company's name because he was afraid of getting fired.
The man said he "didn't feel right" about Ollie's abduction and offered to send the Yorkie back to Vancouver on an airliner.
"The story he related was so fantastic that I thought it could just possibly be true," said Petery, 35, who operates a personal chef business.
She wired the man $350 for the plane fare and, on Sunday, he promised to call her with Ollie's flight information.
That was the last time she heard from him.
"I'm angry," Petery said. "This is almost as low as a person can go. It's cruel to treat people this way and take advantage of them when they are hurting."
Petery said she and her husband, Skip, were vacationing and a house sitter was watching Ollie on July 14 when he escaped from their yard.
People who post fliers describing a missing pet, and get a call from someone claiming to have it, should ask the caller to provide a detail that wasn't mentioned in the flier, she said in retrospect.
On Thursday, although Ollie has been missing about three weeks, Gretchen Petery said she still can't forget how she used to wake up and find him looking at her.
"I miss him," she said of the little tan-and-gray dog she's had since he was eight weeks old. "He's my baby. He makes me laugh and breaks my heart, he's so sweet and so wonderful. I haven't given up yet. I'm still holding out hope I can get him back."
Gretchen Petery said she still calls the Humane Society for Southwest Washington every other day, and still puts up fliers.
She's offering a $750 reward for a tip leading to Ollie's return. Anyone with information is asked to call Gretchen Petery at 360-944-1604.
http://www.columbian.com/08062004/clark_co/174270.html